I'm in the process of gutting a bedroom. I had to remove a pocket door, move the light switch, add a couple of receptacles, and deal with some rot/mold/insects on the exterior wall. I found that whoever put up the drywall in that room used glue on every stud with only a handful of drywall nails per board (to hold it in place while the glue dried, I suppose).

My problem/question is now that I've removed all of the drywall, little bits at a time, I have studs with up to an 1/8 inch of hard construction glue up and down them. Should I leave the glue and put the new drywall over it if it seems even, or it is worth the time to chip off all of the glue and then install drywall right on the studs? It's a LOT of work and I'd like to avoid it unless there's some problem I can't think of.

I am the original poster. I'd like to explain what I did since people are still finding and commenting on this and it may help someone else. I used a hand scraper, the kind with a square blade and 4 edges, to strip all of the glue off the stud faces. I then hung the new drywall and found that it was horribly uneven due to some studs being slightly forward or backward in the wall cavity. The original builder probably used the glue to fill these gaps. I used some shims instead of glue and even sistered a few of the studs. It all came out beautiful. Good luck!
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dslakeMay 12 at 19:55

7 Answers
7

I would spend the time to scrape it off. This will increase the contact area between the studs and the drywall, which in turn will give better stability. Stability is important because if there is any free play, the screws will move, and may eventually show through the paint.

There are various scrapers available in your local home improvement store, in the paints/brushes section. If adhesive proves hard to remove, use mineral spirits or any type of adhesive remover you can find.

I also found that a reciprocating saw with a scraping attachment can be efficient.

If they aren't level, and scraping is too daunting, I suggest sistering new studs to the existing ones but have them stick out 1/8 inch. I'd suggest using metal ones as that'd make the job extremely quick.

Thank you for your answer. This is the method I used. I sistered new studs next to the ones that were set too far back rather than slathering on glue. I used a long level across the wall at the top, middle and bottom to make sure all studs were in alignment. For the places where the gap would be less than an 1/8 inch, I just used those thin cardboard drywall shims.
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dslakeMay 12 at 19:58

If there is a lot of glue I would definitely spend the money on an oscillating tool and get one of the cutting tools. It should make quick work of getting the glue off but won't be as aggressive/damaging as a reciprocating saw.

To see if the glue warrants removal, check your walls with a straight edge, 4 ft. minimum, longer if you have one, make sure it is straight. With that check the top and bottom plates for straight, then check each stud face with the straight edge too. Lastly check across the studs horizontally at the center. Another alternative to a straight edge is string lines with a spacer block at each end, but takes a little longer to set up. If you have everything cleaned to where the thin layer of paper front the back of the drywall is left, that is all the cleaning needed. If the differences between faces are more than an 1/8", trim the tightest spaces back until the gaps are uniform.

If everything is within an 1/8 of an inch the drywall, with screws and new glue behind it, the drywall will readily stay, as you may have noticed when you removed the old drywall. You were accurate in your observation, there are enough screws to hold it until the glue dries.

That can be a good thing or a bad thing. The good thing is, drywall has a tendency to lay completely flat if there is nothing to keep it from doing so. Because of this it can span over slight differences between surfaces, that's what the glue will do, provide a "filler" for the gaps behind the drywall.

The bad thing is, it can also, with a minimum of obstruction, bow away from the wall studs, the biggest culprit being, cutting the sheet too tight between other surfaces or getting it to close to the floor, it should be about an 1" above subfloor, 1/2" above an existing finish floor. This is so any trash or small debris will not get trapped between the framing and drywall.

I would make sure all the screws are out and then run a circular saw up the side of the stud. As long as you hold your line and keep the plate pressed against the side should be able to shave off everything except for a mm or two.

A sawzall with a metal-cutting blade as opposed to a wood or general-purpose one (many small teeth, not few deep sharp ones) will be easy to run along the surface of the studs and cut off the glue with cutting the wood.